George Dunning

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George Garnett Dunning (born November 17, 1920 in Toronto , Ontario ; † February 15, 1979 in London , England ) was an award-winning Canadian film director , animator and film producer , who was internationally renowned for his directorial work on the Beatles animation film Yellow Submarine from 1968 became known.

life and career

George Dunning, born in Toronto, Canada in 1920, first studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design . He then worked as a freelance illustrator before becoming a protégé of Norman McLaren on the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in 1943 . In 1944, when he was in his mid-twenties, Dunning began making his own original animated short films as a director, initially only a few minutes in length, but grew steadily over the years. In 1948 he spent a year for UNESCO in Paris under the supervision of the animation artist Berthold Bartosch .

In 1949 he and Jim MacKay founded Graphic Associates , an early animation studio in Toronto . Animators who worked for Graphic Associates included Richard Williams and Michael Snow . Dunning later moved to New York and worked there at the UPA on the Gerald McBoing-Boing Show . In 1956, George Dunning finally moved to England to manage his newly established London office. He founded the production company, TV Cartoons Ltd , together with John Coates in London in 1957 and soon made a name for himself as a director for sophisticated animation. Richard Williams and Jimmy T. Murakami are among his animators for TVC . After 1961, TVC was already producing around a hundred commercials a year. During this time Dunning also made many personal short films that were known for their surrealist atmosphere and their Kafkaesque themes, including the award-winning short film The Flying Man in 1962 under his direction .

George Dunning later supervised the 33-episode cartoon series The Beatles as a producer for the Associated British Corporation (ABC), which in turn led to a commitment to the Beatles animation classic Yello Submarine in 1968, where he was honored with a special award from the National Society of Film Critics Awards in the USA in 1969 for his directing .

In 1964 Dunning was also responsible for the opening credits of Blake Edwards Clouseau film with Peter Sellers A Shot in the Dark, along with a number of short films including The Digger , for the BBC series for children.

George Dunning shot numerous animated commercials, industrial films, short cartoons and, in addition to the TV cartoon series The Beatles, also worked as a producer several times in the mid-1960s. He directed a total of fourteen short films himself. On February 15, 1979, Dunning died in his adopted home, London, at the age of 58.

Awards

Filmography

Director

Motion picture
Short film
  • 1944: Grim Pastures
  • 1944: Chants populaires nº 2
  • 1944: Chants populaires nº 3
  • 1944: Chants populaires nº 4
  • 1945: The Three Blind Mice
  • 1947: Cadet Rousselle
  • 1950: Family Tree
  • 1959: The Apple
  • 1962: The Flying Man
  • 1963: The Apple
  • 1965: The Ever-Changing Motor Car
  • 1969: Hands, Knees and Bumps a Daisy
  • 1972: Damon the Mower

producer

  • 1962: The Flying Man (short film)
  • 1963: The Apple (short film)
  • 1964: The Insects (short film)
  • 1965: Charley (TV movie)
  • 1965–1967: The Beatles (TV series, 33 episodes)
  • 1975: Safety Senses (short documentary film)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical data of George Dunning in: Film cartoons: a guide to 20th century American animated features and shorts , by Douglas L. McCall, McFarland & Co., 1998, p. 80
  2. ↑ Biographical data of George Dunning in: One Man's Documentary: A Memoir of the Early Years of the National Film Board , by Graham McInnes, University of Manitoba Press, 2004, p. 219
personal data
SURNAME Dunning, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dunning, George Garnett (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 17th November 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto , Ontario , Canada
DATE OF DEATH 15th February 1979
Place of death London , England